The Gardener's Companion - How to grow tomatoes

Vegetable gardeners will bristle at the fact that you choose to run to the store to buy tomatoes rather than grow your own. Except for specific times in the year most of us are not eating true "home grown" tomatoes. Many of the tomatoes you will find to purchase in grocery stores or bixg box grocery areas are specifically engineered to last a long time to cover the time from picking to shipment into the grocery and do not have the same flavor as tru grown from home varieties.

Garden seeds promise so much happiness from such a small package. From a tomato seed comes onf the most loved vegetables of all time. In my local area in the non-seasonal months the price for tomatoes can reach $3 per pound. I feel this is a testament to the appeal of this wonderful vegetable.

Over several decades of my gardening experience, the one vegetable that brings the most earnest anticipation is the humble tomato. You see, some vegetables are nearly guaranteed to grow successfully, rewarding you with delicious, well developed fruit with little interaction from you. However, for a successful tomato garden this is not true. Sure, you can neglect these garden stalwarts and have tomatoes, but if you want a quality crop you must do certain things.

Tomatoes are remarkably easy to grow from seed. Of course they are not very expensive plants, so it is not necessary to do so, but can be a fun adventure for you and your kids. I have started so many of these wonders from seeds, so I have considerable experience for the entire process. My experience involves the technical process of growing tomatoes to be sturdy wind and storm resistant varieties as well as massive producers of the most sought after prize at the local farmer's market. Nearly everyone likes a good ripe tomato.

Personally I choose a soil less mixture when I am trying to germinate tomato seeds. It is lighter and allows the roots to freely develop within the rapid growth cycle of sprouting. Normally I will make three rows in an 11 x 20 germination tray in the soil less mixture, and then sprinkle the tomato seeds into the rows. Be careful not to dump too many as they will crowd each other and you will get a ton of small seedlings . Also, the germination percentage is very high, so unless you are able to plant or sell a good quantity, you want to seed accordingly.

I try to keep the mixture from drying out, but a friend that helped me get started described his method as letting the seedlings wilt before he watered them. That way they do not get too tall before they get a good stem. Also, it is best to grow them as cool as possible. Keep in mind if they freeze they will die, but if they get too warm they will grow fast and be spindly. Look for a pinkish/purple color in the stem.

When your tomato sprouts, it will only have two leaves. Don’t worry, this is normal, they are the seed leaves. Before too long you will see the distinctive tomato leaves you expect begin to develop and you will know the time to transplant is approaching. Ideally, you want at least two of the distinctive leaves if not four before you gently wiggle the roots loose from the other plants in your seeding tray.

How you transplant your seedlings is a personal choice. If you are growing them for your own use, you may choose to plant them in plastic pots, which come in all varieties of sizes, including pint, quart, gallon and larger dimensions. The larger the container the faster your seedling will grow, since the roots have plenty of room to spread out. When I ran my greenhouse I would devote about 20% of my total crop to this method as it provided several large specimens to jump start people’s garden in the spring.

Traditionally you will buy tomatoes in a multi pack offering, usually either 4, 6 or 9 plants at a time. This can be used to transplant your seedlings, especially if you are limited in space. The downside is that the small space means your plants will not have an opportunity to grow like they would as mentioned above. They will still be nice plants, just not on the scale of individually transplanted ones.

There are two main types of tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate. Of these two varieties, the determinate is the one geared for those attempting to enjoy the fruits of the tomato plant in a confined space, as they form a bush that delivers the fruit in a mass amount. Conversely, the indeterminate will continue to grow as long as the weather conditions permit, that is until frost kills the plant. The fruit on this variety ripen all during the season to provide a steady supply of juicy red gems.

There is another sub category of types, heirloom varieties and hybrids. Heirlooms are the varieties that have been kept from seeds of the tomatoes over the years. These have gained a lot of favor in the last decade or so. Hybrids are also favorites due to their prolific production potential and specific qualities to resist some common tomato problems.

Also, there are several classifications of tomatoes relating to the visual appearance of the fruit. There are the larger size of tomatoes, often known as a “beefsteak” type, these tomatoes can be as large as a man’s palm and when sliced will cover a slice of bread. The nicest of these fruits can tip the scales at up to two pounds.

There is also a variety referred to as a “canning” tomato. This can be a bit misleading, because in our experience you may can just about any tomato, but this particular class of tomatoes is usually uniformly round, depending of course on growing conditions and nutritional resources of the plant, and are great for the canning purposes.

Plum tomatoes are usually intended for use making paste or in soups and salsas as a way to thicken the mixture. Cherry tomatoes might be the most known because many of us popped bushels of these into our mouths as children at our grandparents garden plot. As the name implies, these are small cherry like fruits.

Once you are beyond frost or freeze dates, you can venture out to your planting area for the excitement of planting. If you have a good size plant (tall) dig your hole deep and bury at least two-thirds of the stem. Some people explained to me they liked the taller plants because they offer more roots to give the plant a good start. For the money I would rather have the stocky stem of a shorter plant due to the hard storms of the late spring as the weather begins to really warm up. The little hairs on each side are roots waiting for the opportunity to grow. Not only will this make your plant more study, it will give more pathways for fertilizer and nutrients to aid your plant.

I have always supported my tomato plants with some type of stake, fencing or cage. The reason for this is that if you have a good growing season, the multitude of fruit will drag your plant to the ground where critters, slugs and blight are sure to ruin part of your crop.

Miracle Grow makes a specific tomato fertilizer, which I have not used too much, so I couldn't really give an endorsement to it, but I have used regular Miracle Grow with good results. I always try to plant my tomatoes and scoop dirt up around the stem to form a type of reservoir so the fluid stays near the roots until the ground can absorb it.

You must have sustained warmth for the plant to thrive. Also, there must be sufficient moisture to make good fruit. However, we went through one of the driest years I have ever known on my area and everyone said their tomato crops were exceptional. I know mine were. I had gorgeous Parks Whopper vines that produced massive amounts of fruit.

If you do not wish to grow your own plants, you can find them at a variety of places around your home, including garden centers, big box stores, farmer’s co-ops and small greenhouses like the one I used to operate. Some of these plants will be commercially grown by large scale companies, while others originate in the confines of the business you will purchase from. In my experience, there is not a significant difference to warrant the difference in price, so shop wisely.

Many of my old customers would be thrilled to buy a plant that I had potted singly early enough that it actually had fruit on it before they purchased it for planting. Personally, I like for the plant to develop its roots in my garden a bit before the fruit comes to make sure it is going to thrive for the entire season. You really want a compact, stocky plant that will stand up to the late spring winds and storms.

Once your tomato plant gets the optimum weather conditions, that is warmth and moisture with significant root development it will amaze you how quickly it grows. You must spend time attending to this growth or you will have a less than optimal growing experience. You see there will be shoots that develop all up and down the stem. Each one of these shoots, known as “suckers” will develop into a large stemmed branch if left unattended. Usually this is a preferred result, but the more stems you have, the more energy must be generated by the plant and the less there is for fruit development.

To remedy this situation you can take a knife and trim these little suckers off the plant to promote growth where you choose. Soon you will see the distinctive blooms appear, a yellow flower underneath a few green leaves. Again, your tomato plant will produce an abundance of these blooms which will eventually bear tomatoes. If you have the time to approach your tending in the following method, you can guarantee fewer, but nicer fruit. While it is exciting to see hundreds of blooms, if you remove some of these before they begin to develop the tomato the energy of the plant will be directed at developing a smaller amount of fruit, which will provide nicer rewards.

Tomatoes are very susceptible to blight. Many times blight is in relation to conditions of too much moisture. There is commercially promoted products to help prevent blight from killing your plants. Unfortunately if you apply this formula and have precipitation or allow your watering to come in contact with the leaves the protection is eliminated.

Tomatoes will grow rapidly in the optimal growing conditions. In my area, this is late June to mid September. My dad and a neighbor use to compete to have the first tomato for harvest by July 4^th.  Perhaps it is due to the shifting weather patterns, but mid-July is the best I have been able to claim lately.

As tomatoes begin to turn from green to red they actually will look almost white. Then gradually they begin to get a pinkish color and will eventually proceed to the traditional red beauty everyone recognizes. The deeper red they are the better the taste.

It is acceptable to pick the tomatoes before they are ripe and place them somewhere the sun can finish the process for you. Sometimes this is necessary at the end of the season as the frost threat grows to make sure your fruit is not lost before finishing the process of ripening.

If you have several green tomatoes still on your vines near the end of the season, you should pick them before the temperature drops to the point of endangering the tomatoes. You can wrap these green tomatoes, store them in a cool, dry place and wait for them to ripen. They won’t taste exactly like what you would get from a fully wine ripened tomato, but they will beat the taste of the long storage cousins from the supermarket.

Tomatoes do not have a long shelf life. They are best consumed as a fresh vegetable within seven days of picking. This time can be extended if the fruit is refrigerated as this delays the effects of the room temperature on the fruit.

The best way to preserve tomatoes is by canning them. My wife and I can tomatoes in several forms for later use. Tomatoes can be canned for their juice, for the bulk to use in soups and the like, or combined with other items to make salsa.

Tomatoes have a lot of potential problems that will confound even the most experienced gardener. The one that drives me nuts is the birds and ground hogs that decide that my garden is their local personal dining hall. As the tomatoes turn color these two pests will take aim at your prize vegetables.

Also, inconsistent water for your plants will cause the fruit to crack across the top as it grows at an irregular rate. There is another disgusting little problem known as blossom end-rot and it is best described as a decay of the tomato that starts where the bloom develops into the fruit.

Try your hand at growing this gardener’s joy, because it has so many uses. Salads, sandwiches, casseroles, salsa, soup and more are benefactors of the tomato and its sweet taste.